Pineridge Blog

February 2nd is Groundhog Day. It has always been one of my favorite holidays. In my hometown every year the Lion’s club had a sausage dinner for Groundhog Day. Get it “ground hog,” for Groundhog Day. I know…, all I can say is that we were easily entertained in our small town.

Groundhog Day is actually a Chris-tian holiday. Not because God spoke through a groundhog in the Old Testament, nor did Jesus have a pet groundhog as a boy. But when Europeans immigrated to America hundreds of years ago they brought with them the celebration of Candlemas. In a time before electricity Candle-mas was when all the candles were blessed which were to be burned during the dark days winter. Candlemas was marked at the halfway point of winter around the first of February. And the tradition grew up that if the sun shown on Candlemas, there would be six more weeks of winter. That got mixed up with the Native American reverence for the groundhog, thus the American tradition if the sun shines on Candlemas so that the groundhog can see his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter.

This is more than just a fun fact to know and tell. I like the part about the groundhog seeing his shadow and retreating for an-other six weeks. I like a holiday where we look our shadows in the eye and feel like running away. That has the makings of a great Christian holiday! Not because it is about guilt for having a shadow but because it is about grace that God loves us any-way, shadows and all.

If your shadow is showing you should not hide in shame alone, deep within your burrow, but you are invited to come to the Table with the rest of us. At the Table we celebrate that God is love and “nothing, not our own shadows or the shadows of the world, can keep God from loving us in Jesus Christ our Lord.”

And look, you are in luck, you are called to join us at the Table in worship this week, shadows and all!